Higher and Higher - Jackie Wilson
Song of the Day #15
Apple Music link: https://music.apple.com/us/album/your-love-keeps-lifting-me-higher-higher/404015175?i=404015196
Most of the time, an artist's most popular song is not their greatest. Sometimes their best song was never released as a single, and sometimes their most serious work was too emotionally powerful for most audiences to recognize it. But in the case of Jackie Wilson, the public got it exactly fucking right. Jackie Wilson is a very underrated R&B great, boasting a set of pipes that few can match in its dynamic power. He's got a long list of classics, but this song is simply one of those transcendent, untouchable masterpieces that define the power of the genre for me. As great as "Reet Petite" and "Lonely Teardrops" are, nothing can compete with the monumental nature of this recording.
Though, it is through the context of these earlier hits that this performance truly blows me away. In his 50s prime, he would wield his voice as a sonic weapon, using it to annihilate you when you least expected it. This would make his songs, torch ballads or danceable R&B grooves, truly electrifying, but it also came at the cost of adding a bit of subtlety and complexity. Naturally, a flashy showman like Jackie doesn't need that to succeed, but with growing older and maturer, a bit more soulful depth was going to creep into his songs.
With this performance, he pulled off the impossible: retaining his vocal pyrotechnics but reaching far, far deeper than he ever had before. He launched his trademark vocal missiles high into the sky, but there are these delicate little pauses between each line as if he had to take a moment to collect himself before laying it all bare. Despite how aerobic and graceful the song is, he almost sounds strung out in those verses, delivering them with more heartbreaking vulnerability than is expected from him. When that tear-inducing summit is reached at the chorus when Jackie ascends to a heavenly state with the sustained orchestral note, you can tell his explosive vocal punch is now being used to attain catharsis rather than merely stun a crowd. With its rhythmic perfection and sun-drenched riff, it's simply one of the rawest statements of the power of love ever put to tape, transcending mere sexual attraction towards it being our primary spiritual life-giver.
Songs like this are why I get very defensive and frustrated when people write off soul music as too entertainment-oriented and not as serious as genres like rock, jazz, and classical. Sure, it may not be very complex compositionally, and many of its best representatives weren't musical visionaries or genius songwriters. Yet, soul music can do what no other genre can do: express the total range of human emotions in the rawest form possible. Rather than dance around a point with symbolism and artsy pretensions, a great soul song goes straight to the point, unveiling the depths of the human soul through the sheer expressivity of a vocal performance. Above all, soul music is who we are as people, showing us how to feel, love, and enjoy the world around us. "Higher and Higher" is when Jackie Wilson understood that a soul singer's purpose is to interpret the human spirit, and it's a testament to his greatness that it became a staple of our culture, sounding just as vital and heartstoppingly beautiful as it did in the 60s. At least for me, when I struggle to find meaning in life, this song is a faithful companion of mine, reminding me life is beautiful because we share it with others.
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